Cinemaskop - Last month's silver screen stars

July 2013

Fascinating graphic-novel hero Wolverine is the archetypical hard-hitting Aries-character: courageous, fierce, dangerous, ferocious – and unbreakable. In the new film “The Wolverine” his immortality, which is torturing him, is taken from him and his invincibility is challenged, so the powerful association with Scorpio-motifs is illustrated not only in further transformational processes. Besides fighting samurais, yakuza gangsters and ninjas this time Wolverine also has to confront his inner demons.

Taurus

“Fill the Void” is a quiet Israeli film set in an orthodox community, where marriage is arranged by families and based on convenient and comfortable circumstances. Thus, when 18-year old Shira’s sister dies in childbirth, her parents suggest that Shira marry the widower, so the newborn baby could stay with the family. The film very clearly demonstrates the reassuring and safeguarding purpose of the traditions, rituals and habits the conservative community adheres to, yet it also shows the accompanying constriction and narrowness.

Gemini

Seven short stories about everyday life in the Cuban capital are assembled in “7 Days in Havanna” creating a diversified and entertaining omnibus film. The seven directors all use their own narrative style, thus offering a patchwork of different images of Havana. Some familiar clichés about Cuba are quoted and varied, yet we also do get to know some possibly new things about life and people in Havana.

Cancer

A little girl is the main character in “What Maisie Knew” and she has to painfully experience her parent’s divorce, their battle for custody and their self-centred attitudes. Only in her parent’s new partners she finds parenting persons who are really there for her, yet the relationship problems the adults have with each other continue to endanger Maisies fragile emotional safety…

Leo

Preparing for the Youth America Grand Prix, one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world, the young ballerinas and dancers are all filled and infused with the hope of becoming a dancing queen or king on the world’s important stages. The documentary “First Position” centres on six very different participants including their families, which are partly supportive and partly projecting their own creative wishes onto the kids.

Virgo

When the modest wish for a more attentive handling of resources transforms into a well-crafted thriller like “The East”, one of the reasons might be the meticulous look onto our unspectacular everyday life and things we take for granted in our consumer society. With its illustration of a somewhat morally questionable, maybe even self-righteous way of fighting for a better world, this film has an unpretentious look, yet it is quite efficient in its critique of our carelessness towards resources, life and environment.

Libra

The beauty of Rome, elegant suits, high society glamour and sophisticated parties dominate “La grande bellezza”, a film about an aging writer, who hasn’t written anything meaningful for a long time, but spends his time with beautiful thoughts and even more beautiful women – until all of the superficial amusement and beauty starts losing its charm for him…

Scorpio

“Time to meet the devil” is a defining line in “Only God Forgives”, a sinister thriller drenched in red and black, the blood and the abyss of obsession reaching out for us from the screen… The driven characters are thrown into an archaic universe full of violence and emotional co-dependency, striving to satisfy their sexual appetites as well as their need for vengeance and living in an atmosphere of continuous menace.

Sagittarius

The documentary “We Steal Secrets” is about the wikileaks affair, its figurehead Julian Assange and the whistleblower Bradley Manning. With all the “talking heads” and the issues of data theft and disclosure of secret information the story deals with the Gemini-Sagittarius-dualism. Since it is a story of worldwide meaningful importance with the main motifs being idealism and the rise and fall of individuals who have even been aggrandized as freedom fighters, the emphasis is clearly put on the worldview-oriented Sagittarius.

Capricorn

The French comedy “Paulette” proves that a movie with Capricorn-features doesn’t have to be necessarily bleak and austere. In the harsh neighbourhood of a Parisian suburb the story of an old and grim woman named Paulette unfolds. The impoverished retiree fraught with racism and acrid bitterness moves in her usual bad mood through the social desert of her suburban ghetto, until she finds a package of drugs and decides to supplement her meagre pension by trading the find…

Aquarius

In his recent work “I’m So Excited” masterful director Almodóvar returns to the flashy, entirely hyped up humour of his early movies. This wacky trip on an utterly crazy airplane is as gaudy and hilarious as it can get with a plane that’s unable to land regularly because of damage in its undercarriage and thus – completely unhinged – has to circle above Spain for hours and hours …

Pisces

“Now You See Me” is a not so rare combination of action and illusion: Four people, who are making their living by creating magic as illusionists, are brought together by anonymously delivered mysterious playing cards. Henceforth they perform shows together where they use all their magical skills to rob banks and present their audiences with the money in an altruistic Robin-Hood-way…

Vesna Ivkovic

Vesna
Ivkovic studied literature and linguistics, sociology, philosophy and
history and as well took a profound interest in psychology, mythology
and different belief systems. Along the way she also explored various
paths of body awareness such as the martial arts of Kung Fu, Dance,
Yoga, Qi Gong and several other methods of body work and motion arts.
In 1993 she discovered astrology as an instrument of knowledge and graduated
in 2004 in Markus Jehle's and Petra Niehaus' master class at the Astrology
Center Berlin. You can find out more about the author and her work on
her own website www.astrosemiotics.de

The Cinemascope is meant to give an overview of current movies and their main themes from an astrosemiotical perspective (i.e.: regarding film as semiotic system and translating it into the astrological semiotic system). A well made movie not only has a story and a certain theme, it also provides a special atmosphere, a certain feeling and it draws us into its very own world. This basic quality that is contrived through characters, plot, setting and many other components also translates into one or more astrological principles. Quite simply: a fast-paced action-flick confronts us with plain Aries energy, a horror-movie evokes Scorpio-like abysmal depths and fears etc. We step out of the theatre and – if the film succeeded in sucking us in – find ourselves dwelling on and engaging in that special energetic quality.

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